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Found dog: Do you know who I belong to?

If you’re an animal lover, you’ve probably pulled over to rescue a “stray” dog running in the road. You didn’t want him to be hit by a car, and he looked so afraid, you couldn’t drive by without stopping. If you were close to home, most likely you knew where the shelter was, but what if it was closed, or you were in unfamiliar territory?​

Sometimes a well-meaning Good Samaritan takes a pet they’ve found to the shelter that’s most convenient for them. They assume that since they’re dropping him off at the shelter, even if it’s in another county, they’re helping. After all, a shelter is a shelter, right? No. This may prevent the dog from being reunited with his family. Shelters are required to wait several days before offering the pet for adoption, or even possibly euthanizing him. If the family is looking for him at the shelter in their county, but he’s in the shelter in another, it’s much less likely they will find him within that waiting period.

Recently we’ve had two dogs that were transported to a different location by the finder. “Max” was found by a girl who was traveling across the state. She assumed he was a “stray” and brought him home with her, two hours from where he was found, and sold him that same night. Thankfully, several days later, the buyer realized he might belong to someone and had him scanned for a microchip, which led him to be reunited with his family. Max didn’t need a new home, he needed help getting back home!

In the second instance, a family vacationing in the Panhandle found the dog in this photo. From our understanding, they checked with local authorities but were unable to find his owner. Not wanting to leave him running loose, they took him back to their home in another state, nearly 1,000 miles away. Their other dog wasn’t happy to have a new dog in the house, so he was taken to their local shelter, where he is waiting for his owner to find him. His story was shared over 6,000 times within 24 hours on our Facebook page, with similar results on many other pages across Florida. Hopefully he’ll be back home soon.

If you find a lost dog, have him scanned for a microchip at a shelter or veterinary clinic. This is free. Then notify all shelters in the area. If you’re unsure where the shelter is, or it’s after hours, call the non-emergency police number for assistance. Don’t transport the dog to another county or state, which will make it harder for the family to find him. To learn more about reuniting lost pets, visit www.LostDogsFlorida.org. Our goal is to get every lost/found pet into ONE central place. We’re partnered with Helping Lost Pets, a free map-based, searchable database of lost/found pets.

If this is your dog, or you know who he belongs to, call 850-212-0822.